December Daily: Feedback post

Whilst I was preparing my December Daily album and posting my blog pages, several points regarding the December Daily album occurred to me which I thought might be worth sharing. And even if it's of no use to you, it might just serve as a reminder to me for next year. :)

What I've learnt:
1. I love this album. Yes, it takes time and commitment and by day 25 I'm ready to stop, but the finished project in its entirety is so worth it.

2. Preparation is key. Gather supplies. Print any overlays. Get the bulk of the album prepared. This year I did an A4 album. The advantages were that the pages were easier to print in preparation but it was quite daunting. I think next year I'm going to skip the overlays and simply make my own album with smaller pages made from cardstock and a small amount of patterned paper. It seemed silly to print A4 overlays and then cover them with the paper. I might as well skip the printing step next year and save the money that I would have spent on overlays. That said, the smaller overlays I used in 2010 (I think Ali did 6x8? were faffy to print but easier to use as the fitted 6x4 photos nicely- swings and roundabouts?)

3. Don't worry about what you're going to document. Life happens and nearly everyday I found something to journal. I thought this years album would be too similar to last years. It wasn't. I guess as the children grow up, they get into new things, find new experiences and that makes the album different.

4. I wish I'd had a notebook on hand or journalling spots ready in advance as often I had a story in my head and nowhere to put it. I did write notes on post its and added these to the album in the right place but that's not the same. Having a place to journal ready would have saved me having to rewrite things or trying to remember too hard. I guess, I think the journalling would have been more natural if it had of been written 'in the moment'. Plus all those cute things that the kids say- I would have them recorded more accurately. That brings me back to point 2- I think next year, smaller double page spreads are the way forward. One for photos. One for journalling. Something to think upon.

5. Photos. Using a mix of DSLR photos and iPhone photos really worked well for me as did using the instant photo printer at Boots. The smaller 3x4" photos were a great size and something I'd repeat again. Getting 4 photos to a 6x4 print? Not so great.

6. Memorabilia. I love including this. Drawings the children have done. Programme leaflets. Cards. Invites. All this helps to build the album up and give a broader picture of the season. I need to make sure I have enough pockets and envelopes to hold these things for next year.

I hope this has been a helpful review. If I think of anything else over the coming days I shall edit and add to this.

December Daily: Day 3

Welcome back to Day 3 of my December Daily 2011 round up. It's the home straight today so well done if you've read my previous two posts. :)

Day 17: Village Christmas Party
Another manic day rushing about all over the place doing Christmassy activties. Lunchtime and early afternoon was spent in the village pub (hoorah!) at their childrens party. The kids really enjoyed the games and crafts and we had Santa visit number 3 (from a rather awkward looking, only just post-teenage Santa!) Kids enjoyed having their photos taken with him anyhow. :)
We then ended up back at my best friends house where we stayed for dinner and the children cosied up on the couch to watch Cars. Day 18: Christmas Nativity/Love Came Down
You can see my Love Came Down pics in this post here. I've mainly focussed on the nativity pics from Church on todays LO although I've added a smaller page protector in for the additional LCD photos and to include extra shots from the Nativity.

Day 19: Poorly boy

My first day off from kids in what seems like ages and what happens? Boy child wakes up with a fever. You seriously couldn't plan this stuff. :( Anyway, plans for me-time/scrapping/shopping/baking got put on hold whilst I dealt with him (obviously, how it should be) and therefore the next few days of LOs are pretty mundane. But you know what? That's how it was here this Christmas and I think that's kind of worth documenting too. Life isn't all cherry pie.

Day 21: Poorly day 3
Missing a day out for obvious reasons, I've headed to day 21 where Jack was showing signs of being slightly brighter but Emma was coming down with it. Joy. :( I was beginning to show signs of going stir crazy so with the Grandparents help, we headed into town for a while to pick up those last minute things. Funnily enough, boy child felt better when he saw the fairground rides but was really, really poorly when he was getting bored. Strange that. ;)

Day 22: The big food shop.

I enlisted the help of my parents today- dad to babysit and mum to help tackle the supermarket. I absolutely hate this element to Christmas but needs must and all. In the afternoon, I returned the favour by helping mum lay Christmas flowers at all the Grandparents gravestones.

Day 23: Christmas baking

Christmas ingredients in store, I made today my baking day. The children enjoyed making some Christmas Cookies and I started on the Christmas Cake (better late than never?). In actual fact the cake still isn't decorated to date, but I've been told airtight conainer+ feeding it with alcohol= fabulous cake next year. Consider myself super organised. ;)

Day 24: Christmas Eve

I love this day. Probably more than Christmas Day actually. There's something magical about it. We had friends over for lunch and the boys enjoyed decorating yesterdays cookies. Late afternoon, we then headed to the village church for their 'all in' Nativity. Once home the kids opened their Christmas eve presents (new pjs and a book) before having a bath and leaving cookies and a carrot for Santa. Jack was eager to choose exactly the right spot for his stocking to hang- right next to his head! There were no squabbles getting them to bed on time tonight. ;)

Day 25: The Big Day

For once, we were actually woken at the reasonable hour of 7am with a very excited Jack who was keen to tell us that Santa had been whilst simulataneously devouring the contents of his stocking. Once we were all awake and calm we went downstairs to see what else he'd brought. Santa was very generous with us this year. :) The rest of the day was a mix and blur of grandparent visits, toy construction and food. Altogether very enjoyable!

At the end of the album I always like to include a place for any handmade items to go. This year I used up a zip lock pocket I had left over from paperchase and added all the handmade cards I'd been sent. Given the time people had taken to make them, I think it's nice to keep for inspiration etc.

And that's that. My December Daily 2011. Done.

Thanks for looking.

December Daily: Part two

Wow! Two posts in a row... I'm almost on a roll with this blogging malarky! Lol!

These are my LO's from day 9-16 in my December Daily album. You can find the beginning LO's and a few more details about the album in part one which is here

Day 9: The Tree Festival
I absolutely love this evening. We head out to a local town, watch Santa arrive on the RoundTable float; play on the fairground in the market square; visit Santas grotto and then head into the Church to see the tree festival, drink tea and eat mince pies! What's not to like?

This year brought new adventures to the festivities as both children are now big enough to enjoy the fairground and they both wanted to have ride after ride (Mummys purse didn't like that as much!). I was actually surprised that Emma would ride on her own, but as usual she decided to prove me wrong and absolutely loved the experience. One of the photos had to be their faces on one of their many turns. The top photo was one of the trees within the Church.
Day 10: Mother In Laws 60th Birthday
We headed to Ipswich on the Saturday evening for party number two. The LO has two shots: one of MIL and FIL and one of me and my husband- I'll leave you to guess which photo is which... ;)

Day 11: Christmas cards
I was shockingly bad at sending out cards this year so if you got one then you should feel very priviledged. I must try better next year... Anyway, today I made some homemade cards with the kids to send to Grandparents, Aunties, Uncles etc... you know the kinda thing. I really love doing something personal like this as I think it's nice to see the changes over the years and the kids really enjoy making them too. This year I created a handprint angel card with them, using both of their handprints. A bit faffy but very sweet and worthwhile.

Day 12: Santa visit
I've given up counting how many times the kids saw Santa this year although it's something I'll be more aware of next year. All the playgroup/nursery/preschool/fete etc etc parties had a Santa and tbh, it did kinda start to loose the magic after a while. Anyway, this was the playgroup party where the kids met Santa (aka. the local vicar!) and they got a present. The kids seemed kinda happy with that arrangement! ;)

Day 13: Santa visit two

Jack had a party at nursery and the office staff sent me these photos of him with Santa2. They were allowed to go in fancy dress and Jack took his Spiderman/Powerrangers outfit. I've included additional pages alongside this to showcase the other photos that nursery sent me, mainly of Jack dressed as a Star in his nursery Nativity and of him watching the magician they had in at the party.

Day 15: Letter to Santa

We were slightly late in doing this, this year and again, next year I'll aim to do it earlier, but we did write our letters to Santa in the end and recieved a reply from Santa on Christmas Eve. I'm still trying to figure out the best address to send them to, to get a good reply... :)

Day 16: Christmas Party 3

Oh, the staff Christmas Party. How we look forward to such an event!? Last years was such a disaster that anything this year would have been better. Nelson, the office assistant, didn't disappoint with a Disney themed event. I went as Jessie from Toy Story which Jack was most pleased with as he then managed to nab the accessories later!

Thanks for getting this far. I promise to share the final LO's of the 2011 album with you tomorrow now that I'm on a roll... ;)

December Daily 2011: Part One

Happy New Year!

I had it in mind to try and get my December Daily album completed before January appeared but the children were both poorly in the week running up to Christmas which then threw me off course (and completely ruined the 2 days of scrapping that I was plannning whilst kids were at nursery!).

Having a bit of surprise time to myself on Tuesday this week though, I set myself the challenge of getting this album finished (and truth be told, I'm desperate to get started on using some of my Studio Calico kits!)

This year I did an A4 album using 8.5x11.5 overlays from Ali Edwards. I used a Paperchase album that I decorated myself and WHSmith plastic wallets as page protectors. I did worry that A4 was actually too big for this project but overall it worked out fine. I mainly used the Boots photo booth to print out photos that were either 3x4" or smaller. This worked out well too as well as being cost effective.

To keep things as simple as possible I mostly used old stash in the form of Cosmo Cricket 'Jolly by golly' papers and Echo Park 'Everybody loves Christmas'. The journalling was either printed out or handwritten onto tags or very old Creative Memories kraft journalling spots. Embellishments were mainly from old stash apart from the Jenni Bowlin green and red stars which I bought from the Sarahs Cards retreat. Overall, I hope keeping to the same theme/style helps the album tie together.

This is Day 1: Advent. Kids were bemused by the calendars until they realised that there was chocolate inside! (they had two each- one bought by grandparents and one from us) Once that was established then it was full steam ahead.

I added my journalling to this LO with simple number stickers and facts.


















Day 2: Christmas Party 1
I did a DLO here to fit in all the photos I wanted. I added my journalling to the back of the table number card that was on our table and slotted that inbetween these pages in my album.






Day 3: Birthday preparations
This LO shows the cakes that I made for Emmas birthday- I was rather pleased with them if I do say so myself!


















Day 4 and 5: Emmas birthday
Today was Emma's 2nd birthday. I did a DLO again: one side with pics and the other, journalling in the form of a letter.







Day 6: Radio Times

Nothing much really happened today so this was a bit of a space filler! Day 7 is misisng from here too as it was the School Production and therefore the photos aren't suitable for sharing on here.















Day 8: Decorations!
Today was fun! I spent my day off decorating our house whilst Jack was at preschool. He was so excited when he got home to see the window lights and tree- it was almost as if he didn't realise that it was me that had done it all!

I added a colouring sheet that he bought home from preschool too. Not specifically colour by number, but I thought it would be cool to look back on these kinds of documents in the future.

I'll share some more pages from this album tomorrow. :)

December Daily days 6-10

I'm slowly getting caught up with this project. I've just scrapped day 19 but as I'm feeling a bit rotten and am currently in bed with my old Uni Letterman Sweater on; a mug of honey and lemon and a pack of lemsip, I didn't really feel like scanning it all in tonight.

Day 6
I LOVE this page. I LOVE those mugs. They were an impulse buy at John Lewis in Cambridge in October and I saved them til Christmas but I'm not sure I'll be able to cope when the time comes to put them away til next December. I LOVE the patterns, LOVE the size and LOVE the fact they seem to keep my drink warmer for longer. As a result my journalling for today is hidden under a flap and it's written as a letter to John Lewis explaining just how much I LOVE his shop.

(ooops! Thought I'd rotated that the right way!)

Day 7

Today was the day of our school Christmas Production so I included a couple of photos of the children in my class in their performance as well as a copy of the programme. I also included some text on the photo but as the photos were not of my children, I've cropped their heads (and therefore also the text) before uploading here.

Day 8
No photo today just some journalling which tells of the things that my son is noticing about Christmas. It mainly talks about his interest in Santa but also of how he keeps singing Christmas songs around the house. Too cute.

Day 9

I took so many shots of this tree trying to get this image right as you can see in an earlier post.
The journalling talks about what I like and dislike about decorating the tree and also which items are new this year. The 'new' theme this year seems to be BIG decorations like some 80mm baubles and some MASSIVE felt snowflakes but felt seems to also be a big player and I have quite a few felt decorations.

Day 10
Day 10 documents a 3 year old tradition in our family of going to the local Christmas Tree festival. I choose 3 photos of my favourite tree for one page and a photo of my dad with my kids for the other page. Not sure about my handmade page divider on this LO (I sewed some felt stars from paperchase into little pockets in a cutdown page protector) but it'll have to do for now- mainly I found the plastic divider really hard to trim neatly. Any tips?

At least that's one more job I can cross off that earlier list!
Thanks for looking.

December Daily Days1-5

Finding time to do DD isn't the problem. Scrapping and then blogging is just a step too far though hence the need for a catch up!

Day one
This page is a spare divider from a mini album that I had. The journalling is about our trip to town where Jack and I rode on the Carousel. He'd been waiting patiently to do this for weeks.

Day 2

A get together with a friend and some cake baking.

Day 3

Jack received a reply from Father Christmas today so I've journalled that along with a photo of him writing to Santa and his actual letter. He's desperate for Toy Story things this year.

Day 4

Our Christmas Card photo for this year plus a pic that Jack took of us using my camera. I sooo can't wait for him to get his toddler digi camera at Christmas.

Day 5

I can't believe Emma is one. The main pic is an 8x6 of her at her party with a Paperchase postcard in a cutdown divider as a pocket. The other page is a cut down 8x6 or 7x5 of us two. I've planned out some journalling which I'm gonna type up and stick to the reverse of the postcard.